...How can you tell which yoga teacher is the best fit for your health club, ashram, spa, or wellness studio? Does it depend on a particular diploma, style of yoga, or who their Guru was? Lets go over a bit of credential history and a checklist for finding the ideal yoga teacher.

Lately, there has been a scramble amongst yoga teachers to gain higher credentials. This is understandable because yoga became much more of a mainstream pursuit. As yoga became more and more popular, many experienced yoga teachers found themselves out of the loop.

Some yoga teachers, with decades of yoga teaching experience, had no credentials, diploma, or paper trail. The paper chase was on, and when it came to credentials, a new playing field had been created.

With all the liability suits out th...more

Understanding The Different Types Of yoga

...relaxation and increase flexibility. "Pranayama" is keeping to a correct breathing technique by not constantly thinking about the past, as it results in superficial breath. "Prana", generally refers to "life force" in Hindu. "Pratayahara" is through forming your own strength of will and mind without subjecting to outside influence.

"Dharana" is observing of meditation, "Dhyana" is to maintain self detachment. This is by far the most difficult objective of raja yoga to clarify. An absolute ideal is to be free of any emotional or materials attachment to be one and harmonize with the God and the Universe even depriving yourself of food, oxygen and sleep. Once your body attains flexibility, it will align with your needs and desires. "Samadhi", this is the highest state, to be one with God, the Nirvana state of raja yoga.

While Ivengar focus on the right alignment and shape of the body and cling to it for extended period of time instead of changing poses like ashtanga yoga. Props are also requiring in ivengar yoga to achieve alignment....more

Yoga teacher Training: The Value of the Sage in Yoga

...We live in a time when the masses have to be impressed by the extremes. When people think of Yoga, they often think of circus tricks, pretzel bodies, and gymnastic feats. Feats of physical prowess are a wonderful thing, but you do not need a Yoga teachers instruction, or a sages advice, to perform them.

When I was visiting a colleagues Yoga studio, a young woman signed up for a free introductory Yoga class, and a free Tai Chi class. Before the Yoga class started, she was walking on her hands, touching her heels to the back of her head, and doing full splits in every possible direction. She also put on the same per...more

Teaching Hatha Yoga - How Long Should Warm-Ups Be?

... else).

The value of warm-ups, before Asana (Yoga posture) practice, cannot be understated in Yoga, and in life. Warm-ups reduce the chance of injury to the practitioner. The time spent doing warm-ups can vary due to the purpose.

The age of the students, the time of day, the outside temperature, and the purpose of the warm-up, can be factors, which determine the time frame. When I teach a Chair Yoga class, the warm-ups may take 30...more

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